I'm trying to extend a lexer written in Flex (v. 2.5.2). (The Flex
description consists of about 1500 rules.) Every time I add a new rule
to my Flex description I get the error message: "flex: input rules are
too complicated (>= 32000 NFA states)"
I know I can "solve" this problem by collapsing rules through
extending the C actions. Can you tell me whether this is the only Flex
description level solution to this problem?

(I prefer not to change the Flex source code as I would like to
distribute the final Flex description without having to force future
users to recompile Flex.)

Thank you in advance for your help.

Guido

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Cognitive and Computing Sciences
University of Sussex
Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH
United Kingdom
[Lex does have a few hard-coded limits that you'll run into with
enormous lexers. What does this thing do? 1500 rules is huge. -John]